Although we enjoy the Academy Awards every year, we always walk away with a sour taste in our mouths. Today I will continue my series on the Oscar winners. I will share my thoughts on who won, who should’ve won and who should’ve been nominated.
The first race I am going to tackle is the 1995 Best Actor race.
Here were the 5 Actors nominated for Best Actor.
- Nicolas Cage – Leaving Las Vegas
- Sean Penn – Dead Man Walking
- Anthony Hopkins – Nixon
- Richard Dreyfuss – Mr. Holland’s Opus
- Massimo Troisi – The Postman
Who Won?
Nicolas Cage played Ben Sanderson, a Hollywood screenwriter who lost everything because he couldn’t stop drinking.
Leaving Las Vegas was nominated for 4 Academy Awards with Nicolas Cage picking up the lone win for the film.
Who Should Have Won?: Nicolas Cage – Leaving Las Vegas
This was a no-brainier, Cage gave a phenomenal performance in the film. He lost EVERYTHING and you felt that, you were witnessing the destruction of Sanderson and Cage made you feel it to your core. I truly loved this performance and this led to a run of Cage films that were great.
Who Should Have Been Nominated?: Brad Pitt – Se7en
I was today years old when I found out that this film only had one Oscar nomination. Nevertheless, Brad Pitt’s performance in this film is “chefs kiss”. He was great as Mills in this film and his chemistry with Morgan Freeman is what made this film work as well as it did. I guess this was just one of those films that peaked years after everyone realized that it was as good as it was.
*Yes, I understand that Pitt was nominated for Twelve Monkeys but he should have been nominated for both.
Who would you have picked as the winner? And what film was missing from being nominated?
Subscribe to the Music City Drive-In podcast on all your favorite Podcasting apps. Check it out here: https://anchor.fm/musiccitydrivein
Tell me what you thought of the movie, hit me up on here or talk to me on Twitter@RickyValero_
The Music City Drive-In 
Leave a Reply